...by allowing the option for live spectating in custom games.

My name is Sokar and I'm part of a small group of players called the Summoner's Academy, and we hold 5v5 custom game sessions to help new players learn the basics of the game. We've had several sessions already with good success and we are always looking for ways to improve our ability to help students.

Typically, we have a mentor on each team in the custom game playing in-game and two mentors spectating to provide post-game review. However, you can probably see the limitations of this setup. In-game mentors cannot focus on small details in every lane unless they observe things AFK-style, but 4v4 action makes for poor sessions. While we require our in-game mentors to regulate their aggression in the laning phase, mentors can still snowball as a result of team fights. Spectating mentors can watch players more closely, but the 3-minute delay does not allow for live feedback and guidance.

An option for live spectating would allow mentors to guide their teams over voice chat as the game unfolds. A live spectating mentor can either replace an in-game mentor entirely to remove the impact of a mentor's presence in game or they can supplement an in-game mentor by focusing on details an in-game mentor can't.

I'm not asking to replace the 3-minute delay with live spectating; I know why the 3-minute delay exists. But having the option to allow live spectating when setting up a custom game would be a great thing.

Thanks for reading this and thanks for your support. Please post any feedback or ideas below; it is very much appreciated!

EDIT: If you are interested in knowing a little more about us, this link is the thread for our next upcoming session. It explains what we do. Thanks for your interest!

EDIT2: While technical obstacles may prevent exact live streaming, a few seconds would still help. Thank you for any feedback you can provide on this.

we need more people like you. keep doing this! (+1)

bump

I'm one of the co-founders for Summoner's Academy and I'd like to say how much we'd love this to be implemented. It would be immensely helpful!

Thanks for the upvotes, guys, but need a way to keep this active in the fast-moving GD forum.

Suggestions? Should I offer cookies?

EDIT: Thanks, aviraaaa!

Make it happen! For the cookies!!

This needs to happen! PLEASE! THINK OF THE COOKIES!!

@Riot, I will bake you guys ALL cookies! And also cookies for anyone who supports this thread!

I want cookies!

But seriously, it sounds like you do a great thing, and live spectating would be a good feature anyway.

Hm. This is a good idea.

Keep in mind, however, that there might still be a significant delay between real-time and spectate, due to the need for processing, transmitting, etc. Might be a few seconds, might be half a minute.

I wish you the best, but just letting you know it might not be technically possible to make it 'live'.